HOLY AND GREAT SATURDAY
Lenten Triodion — translated by Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware
Pentekostarion. This division into two distinct volumes, made for reasons of practical convenience, should not cause us to overlook
the essential unity between the Lord’s Crucifixion and His Resur
rection, which together form a single, indivisible action. And just as
the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are one action, so also the
‘three holy days’ (triduum sanctum) - Great Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday — constitute a single liturgical observance. In deed, the division of the Lenten Triodion and the Pentekostarion into two books did not become standard until after the eleventh century; in early manuscripts they are both contained in the same codex. What do we find, then, in this book of preparation that we term
the Lenten Triodion? It can most briefly be described as the book o f
the fast. Just as the children of Israel ate the ‘bread of affliction’
(Deut. 1 6 : 3) in preparation for the Passover, so Christians prepare themselves for the celebration of the New Passover by observing a fast. But what is meant by this word ‘fast’ (nisteia)? Here the utmost care is needed, so as to preserve a proper balance between the out ward and the inward. On the outward level fasting involves physical abstinence from food and drink, and without such exterior absti nence a full and true fast cannot be kept; yet the rules about eating and drinking must never be treated as an end in themselves, for ascetic fasting has always an inward and unseen purpose. Man is a unity of body and soul, ‘a living creature fashioned from natures 2 The Lenten Triodion is mo entitled because on weekdays in the Great Fast the
Translated by Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware. Edition triodion.en.ware.